Need Recommendations For Lighting..

Hey everyone, So right now im vegging my 1 month old babies from seed under 20/4, with 3-100watt Cfls & 2-100Watt LED Bulbs. For 2-4 hours of the day I take them outside to recieve some sun light..

My friend just lent me his 7ft-tall by 4ft wide grow tent. So my plants are currently vegging in there.

I need some help on choosing what kinda lights to pick up for flowering. But dont have much money to spend. But I would like to have better lighting then what im currently running.

So should i just install 2-4 more 100watt Cfl or LED Bulbs for about 30-35$? Or is there other options under the 100$ Range that are ALOT better then 700-1k watts total of CFL&LED Bulbs?

I have the option and space to Veg plants in another area and use the tent for just flowering. The tent is just being used to veg right now because I just started growing again and everything is from seed..

A 4foot wide grow tent is going to need way more than $100 worth of LEDs. I have never seen a 100W CFL got a picture/link?

Most of the CFL labelled 100W are just 23W, the 100W is some BS marketing equivalent claim about the incandescent lamp it would replace. A 23W CFL is only about 1,600 lumens, by comparison you can get 18W LEDs that are 2,000lumens. You are going to need about 30W per sq. ft of LEDs at least.

600W hps vertical

Dang, yah they are the equivalents. Even the LED bulbs are only about 1k lumens that's actually the reason why I went for a couple CFLs since it had A 1600k rating which is a little higher then the LEDs but I wanted a variety of lights since both have proved positive results.

So I was looking at the T5-T8s. They actually didn't have much replacement tubes, the ones they did have had a low wattage.. I would rather get a horizontal light first then a vertical light. A lot of the grows I've seen on here run both in their grow. I could also use a couple LED or a bunch of CFLs bulbs to help with the undergrowth once I get my main top light

I could always throw in my halogen work light I have in my work shop. You know the ones on a stand hahaha..

So basically I'm running about a true 100watt grow right now including the 2 LED bulbs? So in reality I should actually stop using my tent since my plants are about 4ft away, and put them back to where I had them before since the lights where only at most 1ft away..

Thanks for replying back and trying to help out u guys.. I used to only grow outside but do to certain circumstances right now I have to be inside most of the time. So I just used what I had around the house ya kno

Just in case, I was joking about the halogens lol..

So I was looking around at different set ups and I think I really would like to go with 2-250watt hps vertical set up..

I was looking at 1000bulbs and they have 250watt plus rite ansi-S50,et18 bulbs for 8$each. They say that it puts out 29,000 lumens but it's Color spectrum is only 2,000..

The ballast that matched up with it is the Sola 250watt hps magnetic 5-tap ballast for about 50$.. Would I get 2 of these ballast? Or is it cheaper to find a bigger ballast that can run the 2 bulbs? I'm kinda on a tight budget so any help would be greatly appreciated!

you want to use different ligths for different areas of your garden

first i would take the young plants out of the large tent and put them in a much smaller area with the lights a lot closer to the plant tops
4' is way too far to get the most out of your cfls

if you really want to use htese bulbs and leds, there are lots of great grows here using similar lights wiht really good results, look at microgrows and prepare to be amazed

if you really want to use that tent you will need to spend more than $100

All plants have already been moved so that all CFL/LED bulbs are no more then 6 inches away with good ventilation.. I've been on this site for awhile so I've had time to look at a lot of grows but I've actually only finished 3 harvest but they're all outdoors 95% of the time lol..

I was looking at Amazon after I posted in here earlier today and there's complete 400-600watt hps set ups ranging from 120-200$.. It's just that I'm really stuck on the vertical concept and most of those prices are really paying for the cost of the reflector.

I also saw A 500watt-2lamp ballast for about 65$.. 2-250 hps bulbs 20-30$, 2-6/8 inch fans-30$, and lastly the mogul bases/sockets-15-25$.

The 2 fans are only to mount the sockets onto which I saw from one of the colosseum vert grows on here.. That adds up to the same cost of the complete horizontal style 400-600 watt hps set ups on Amazon.

So I honestly think going the 2-250 watt hps bulbs would be the better route, only because I have the option of placing the bulbs where ever I want on the side/right next to the undergrowth of the plants. Compared to only being able to move the light farther or closer to the tops.

But I'm still very open to suggestions. As long as I make the decision before the end of this month because that would be the 2 month veg mark for a lot of the plants.

And I'd also be able to still run about 6 23-25 true wattage CFL/LED Bulbs from the top , to promote top growth if I went with the vertical .

But if some of you still think a horizontal style hps set up, or just A 4-600 single bulb vert set up is better then Lmk lol..

Also I think I'm going to run the least amount of plants/cuts I need to. That way there's room for them to grow freely. I don't need to do A Sog or scrog grow.. But all cuts flowering in the tent will be topped and trained but still given ample veg time..

I 2nd the 600w hps , you will need a good exhaust fan for the heat or AC in the room the tent is in to deal with the extra heat .
Save yourself some future stress by leaving them inside. Putting the plants out for some sun could be an invitation for mites gnats or anything else in to your garden .

I have A 6inch exhaust fan already installed.. And inside I have A 3ft oscillating ion-able fan which is sucking fresh Air from 1/3 Velcro covered areas on the bottom of tent..

The exhaust will be directed to a lightly carbon filtered vent. The exhaust air is then pulled 1/2 story up and joins into the kitchens duct right before it exits the very top roof. A fan turns on via when I turn the vent on in room or switch in kitchen that way either kitchen or room air/smoke won't linger and possibly leak to either places.. Also have vent in bathroom for stale/stinky air but that's pulled to corner of house around 20ft away..

So basically I already have the few things needed besides the complete light set up lol.. Amazon has the iPower 1k complete for about 140$ the 600ipower is seriously only a couple bucks difference..

I really don't want to bring these guys outside at all since there indoor plants but I'm just so sad seeing them at their current stage because of current lights and stupid errors compared to what the plants looked like that I did outdoor at the same stage... Last micro indoor was trashed because of outdoor pest.

I only feel a little ok with chancing it because I take them out on the balcony which is pretty far from any plants, it's super windy, and sun is literally right above so it's to hot for most but I know it just takes 1-2 pest to raise an army and destroy lol..

The iPower set ups come with A digital ballast and it's not air/fan cooled.. Ugh.. Maybe I pick this up to just get started and then slowly collect good equipment?